I got a call from yet another SEO company trying to sell one of my clients services that will get them first page rankings in Google. Now, I’ll never call myself an expert, but I do know a thing or two about SEO. But the first rule is that there are no guarantees that anyone, regardless of how “expert” they are, can get your site on the first page of Google. There are too many factors, many of which are unknown except to Google themselves. Plus it also depends on how competitive your industry is, how long your site has been around and the quality of the inbound links you have to your site.

I won’t bore you with all the details of the less than complimentary conversation I had with this sales guy, but here’s the best part that illustrates the issue:

Sales guy: I searched for your client using “boston plumbers” keyword phrase and I see your pay-per-click ad but you are not on the first page organically.

Me: Getting first page for “boston plumbers” is difficult – it’s a very competitive market. Plus, you’re not in Boston, so you may not get the same results as I do here in Massachusetts as Google optimizes by location. Actually someone in Boston may get different results as well.

Sales guy: Where’d you hear that? I put in “boston plumbers” and your client doesn’t come up. The use of Boston should get us the same results.

Me: Google. I read about how they actually index based on location so I will get different listings depending on where I am. Plus my plumber is in Somerville and we are on the first page for “Somerville plumbers”.

Sales guy: Well, did you know you only have 12 keyword phrases that you’re using.

Me: You mean in the keywords meta tag?

Sales guy: You need 75 keyword phrases in your keyword meta tag to optimize your search engine results?

Me: Google does not use the keyword meta tag as part of the algorithm for ranking pages. Why should I waste time putting 75 keyword phrases into something very few if any of the search engines use? I put a few in that are relevant to that page and are used in the content just in case another search engine uses the meta tag, but Google does not.

Sales guy: They sure do and you don’t have enough keywords. Anyway you have a nice day.

So as far as the first one – the location dependent search results – if you don’t specify a location, Google does a match based on the IP address of your computer. If you type in “Boston Plumbers”, people in different locations still may get different results.

Now on the importance of using the keyword meta tag, we’ll go straight to the source – Matt Cutts of Google on how Google does not use the keyword meta tag:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK7IPbnmvVU

Just to complete the picture, if you do include a keywords meta tag, your keywords MUST be relevant to the content contained in the body of the page. Stuffing the keywords meta tag with 75 keyword phrases is useless. Each page should be optimized for what it is all about individually, not for the web site as a whole. Use those targeted keywords in your title and in your page description. You should never use keywords in your meta keyword tag that is not contained within the visible body of your web page.

The sad part about all of this is that many small business owners get taken by these “not so expert” SEO expert companies trying to make a sale.

If you’re a small business owner and you get a call from someone claiming to be an SEO expert, listen as politely as you can and say you’ll think about it. Then do the following:

• Take the snippets of “wisdom” they provide and check it against fact.
• Do a search for the company and see where they show up in the Google rankings! This company came up on Google maps, but I could not find their web site anywhere.
• Talk with someone who understands this space and is not trying to sell you something. Most online marketing people know enough to help you determine whether you’re being sold a bill of goods or not.

Getting your site on the first page of Google is doable as I have gotten many of my clients on the first or second page for a few choice keyword phrases, but there are no guarantees. If you apply the SEO tactics outlined in Google’s SEO Starter Guide, you will find your site moving up the rankings faster.

Have you been solicited by an SEO company that didn’t have their facts straight? Let me know.

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SEO Companies – Truth or Dare is an original post from Debra Murphy, Small Business Marketing Coach: Masterful Marketing - Marketing in the New Media World. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Debra on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.